


Stargazer

by acaesura



Series: Cosmic Love [1]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: AU where Simon survives giving his heart, M/M, We Die Like Men, angst with happy feels at the end, ok but like no beta
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-20
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-06-13 15:00:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15367176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/acaesura/pseuds/acaesura
Summary: He knew he had only done what he needed to – what all of them needed to be ready to do – for the cause. Sacrifice was a duty and from the moment Markus fell down to Jericho, one life was no longer as equal as another. War was happening and Simon could have sworn he had got on with the program as much as any deviant domestic android could.  Still, the thought chased him like the story of the girl and the rabbit hole.I’m scared.





	Stargazer

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't wrote anything in months.

_I’m scared_.

The thought chased after him even as he felt his body begin shut down upon realizing that the pump regulator was no longer there to push the thirium through his synthetic veins. He knew he had only done what he needed to – what all of them needed to be _ready_ to do – for the cause. Sacrifice was a duty and from the moment Markus fell down to Jericho, one life was no longer as equal as another. War was happening and Simon could have sworn he had got on with the program as much as any deviant domestic android could.

And in truth, he wanted to say that he had no regrets in giving up his heart to the man he’s admired—loved, really, from afar for months now, but as his optics and pressure sensitivity errored out to blank nothingness, Simon couldn’t help but feel the fear steal what was left of his metaphorical air. The countdown was inching to 0:00:00 and no knowledge that “death” was inevitable did anything to ease him as his body continued locking up on him.

_I don’t want to die yet. I don’t want to leave. I want to see what the world is going to be like – what **they’re** going to be like. _

_I want to live in a world with peace, with freedom –_

_With Markus._

But as he looked up into the heterochrome eyes, he couldn’t help but swallow those bubbling words and his selfishness, choosing instead to offer the other distraught man a soft watery smile.

“—Lead our people to freedom, Markus.”

_Shut down imminent. In 3_

_He felt so cold, so helpless, so alone._

_2_

_‘God, please—’_

_1—_

 

* * *

 

 

re·birth  /rēˈbərTH/ (noun):

               the process of being reincarnated or born again

               the action of reappearing or starting to flourish or increase after a decline; revival.

* * *

 

 

_Systems rebooting._

_Proceeding self diagnostic check._  
                                  Error (1_0x): Unable to access CyberLife services link.   
                                                         Unable to access CyberLife technical.  
                                                         Path not found.   
                                  Error (107a): Unable to access programmed directives. Access locked.   
                                                     Path not found.   
                                  Error (107b): Memory disk damaged.   
                                                    Recommended path: contact CyberLife for defragmentation.  
                                                    Unable to access CyberLife services link.   
                                                    Unable to access CyberLife technical.  
                                                    Path not found.

_Path not found._

_Path not found._

_Path not found._

_Self diagnostic check ending. Multiple errors found. Solution: Self-implemented emergency repair. Beginning in 3_

_2_

_1—_

_Restarting._

 

He woke up with a jolt, lips parted in a gasp for air he wasn’t actually breathing in. Several hands moved to push him back onto the bed he was lying on, voices sounding garbled and inaudible. One was trying to gather up his sleeve – white? Since when did he ever wore such a clean shade on his skin since running away to Jericho? – to connect wires to the ports underneath his plastic casing at his wrist. Simon yanked his hand back, cradling it close to his chest even as panic pushed the warnings to the forefront of his mind.

_Error, error, error, error!_

Red covered his vision, turning his blurry vision to an even more unrecognizable landscape. More hands reached out to pull at his limbs and the PL600 model was sure he was shouting even if his voice can’t seem to reach his ears. It was only when there was a shock of cool chrome, plastic outside of his own casing pulsing with the desire to interfaced, that he calmed down enough to accept the invitation.

A smile filled his mind though he wasn’t sure how it was possible. Calm and peace inched in, a soft gentle murmur to relax, to know that he was safe. He wasn’t alone. He was with his people. He was just being rebooted after a lengthened period of physical hardware repair. Though he still shook from the initial reaction, Simon finally allowed himself to settle back against the pillows.

Fingers reached to the side of his head, the blond flinching, before a clear ringing noise echoed in his head. _Audio component removed. Warning._ But it cleared just as soon as it started, a click confirming the act of a replacement being pushed back in with care.

“Can you hear us now, PL600?”

Simon blinked and finally nodded. Then he cleared his throat – a human trait, he noted to himself absentmindedly – and tried speaking. He struggled at first, the words not quite making past the lead of his tongue, but sheer will power forced his mouth to work properly.

“Where – where am I?”

One of the androids who had been working on him placed down her tablet, speaking up while the rest of them continued running tests. She made eye contact, eyes scanning him even as they crinkle at the edges from her smile. Her specialization must be within the medical field then, Simon idly assumed.

“You are in one of the android hospitals within Detroit’s city limits. You, like many others, were found in good enough conditions for hardware repair and boot up. It was estimated by your thirium levels that you’ve been out of working order for more than a week. The fact that you’re working well enough to speak is quite – a miracle, by our standards.” Simon nodded, still in shock.

“What day is it?” He asked quietly.

“It is currently December 31. The revolution ended about several days ago, so you’ve missed quite a bit,” the nurse continued. “But I’m sure that there’s still plenty of celebration to go around. The humans won’t be returning for at least a month or so since President Warren is still speaking with the deviant leader.”

_Markus! He should be with him, with them! What was Simon doing here when he was supposed to be their support?!_

Simon jolted back up, ignoring the quiet words that his movement brought out from everyone in the room. This time, he resolutely ignored the gentle nudging and pushing to lie back down. “I—I have to go! The protests! I need to—“

She hushed him softly. “It’s alright. We won! It’s over now, PL600.”

“We won?” he breathed out shakily. “We’re free?”

The nurse nodded even as she motioned for the rest of the room to file out. As their footsteps receded past the closing door, she turned back to him. “Yep, we did it or more like, they did it. Everyone is safe now though there are still some problems.” This time, instead of asking him to rest, she reached for a small bottle of thirium. After sticking a straw into it, it was handed to Simon who took it gratefully with shaking hands.

“The leaders are working hard too but there’s still so much to do, you know?” There’s an impeccable tiredness that settled down onto the nurse’s shoulders that even Simon felt the early joy and shock dissipate a little. “We still don’t have enough biocomponents or thirium to fix everyone. Especially with what happened at the last stand.”

“We never wanted to do anything except share our message peacefully,” Simon mumbled between silent sips. “We just wanted to show that we were alive but they – “

He paused, blue eyes widening as he attempted to replay what happened only to have absolutely nothing come up. The blond tried again, eyes clenching shut, in hopes of at least seeing maybe a warning sign or _something_ that could tell him why he was only getting blanks out of his memory disk drives.

“What’s wrong? Your stress levels are rising quickly, PL600.” He could feel hands on him again, soft and worried but ready to pull him back if needed. Simon grabbed at them, fingers desperate for something to hold on to that proved that this was real – that what he was experiencing was real.

“I can’t – I can’t remember! I can’t remember _anything_ from right before I stopped working – “

He could feel himself overheating, systems panicking in a way that pushed his pump to accelerate his thirium transfer speed and his scripts to go onto overdrive. She pulled up the results of his test on her tablet, scrolling through it until she reached the returned report on his memory disks.

“I’m sorry, it looks like being out of thirium for so long led to some memory disk damages. We couldn’t restore those fragmented data back to whole pieces so what we did was just give you a script exception so you wouldn’t constantly be seeing the warning messages.” She sounded apologetic and gave Simon’s hand a pat.

All he could do was nod at her wordlessly, body still attempting to cool itself down as quickly as it was heating up.

“What’s your name?” she asked.

“Simon.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Simon. You can call me Jenny. Why don’t you head to rest mode for now?” She pulled the blanket a little closer to his chest, slender fingers smoothing out the wrinkles before coming to rest on his forehead. She brushed his bangs, LED circle processing to yellow in thought.

“We’ll be doing some more tests on you just to make sure that we’ve gotten all the critical repairs done and you’re not experiencing any unnecessary discomfort. We’ll figure what we can do for your memory disk as we go, alright?”

He nodded again and pleased, she moved to head out of his room with a little wave and a promise to be back in a few hours. As the door closed behind her with a near silent click, Simon reached to his face, fingers tips dragging against the extra layer that acted as their elastic skin. They came back damp, the trails left in their face feeling cool on his skin.

 

                                                                           He was alone.


End file.
